Hays: Neosho must close crossings

The city
of Neosho, Mo., has no recourse other than to close two railroad crossings,
City Attorney Steve Hays told the council Nov. 3, The Neosho Daily News reports.
Mayor Pro Tem Richard Davidson asked the council to authorize Hays to speak
to the Missouri Department of Transportation and Kansas City Southern Railway
Company to see what alternatives there were, if any, to closing crossings at
Daugherty Road and Park Street. Essentially, Hays told the council that they
had no alternatives.

"I made
contact with MoDOT and spoke to an individual who had the authorization to
discuss this with me," Hays told the council, although he added he did not have
the name of the person he spoke with at Tuesday's meeting. "I explained the political
ramifications. His comment was, first, there are always political casualties
when you close a road. He said he understood that, he had closed a number of
roads in the state, and there was never a time when there wasn't. The bottom
line is the roads will not be reopened. He said the roads were voted on by the
council and they were a done deal. MoDOT will not be coming back to the city of
Neosho asking for more roads to be closed."

Hays
said the MoDOT representative told him that work to close the crossing would
not begin until spring, and likely would not be finished until late next summer
or early next fall.

Hays
said he also sent e-mails to Kansas City Southern, but officials there did not
respond to them.

"I don't
like to assume, but my guess is they don't want to get into that discussion,"
he said.

Rhonda
Warren, who collected several hundred signatures on a petition to keep
Daugherty Road open, said before the council heard from Hays that the city
should conduct a traffic study on the South Street overpass when it opens to
the public before moving ahead on closing crossings.

And
council member Heather Bowers, during discussion, concurred, saying the city
was obligated by municipal codes and the city charter to conduct traffic
studies on the crossings before they were slated for closure. She said the
contracts the city had with MoDOT and the railroad stipulate this.

"We don't
even have an engineer, and they were putting in the contract that the city was
doing engineer services," she said. "Traffic studies are required."

"The
question is not if this council can undo what a former council decided," said
Mayor Pro Tem Richard Davidson, who moderated the meeting in the absence of
Mayor Jeff Werneke.

Kansas
City Southern Railway proposes to install flashing light signals and gates at
railroad crossings on Washington Avenue and College, Spring and McKinney
streets at a cost of $961,000. The Missouri Department of Transportation will
pay 80 percent, while the railroad will pick up the remaining 20 percent. MoDOT
will also provide an additional $220,000 to close crossings at Park Street,
Daugherty Road and Industrial Drive, with the railroad adding $135,000 for the
three closures.